Part 1 – In which there is a cramped hiding place.
Sarah was breathless. The Doctor was pulling her along a corridor, away from some hideous type of bug-eyed monster. They rounded a corridor and at last found a door and ducked inside.
"Oh thank goodness," she gasped. "I thought my lungs were going to burst."
The cupboard into which they had stumbled was extraordinarily cramped. They were pushed together like sardines in a tin. The Doctor tried hard to concentrate on what was going on outside, but his proximity to Sarah made that very difficult. He could feel any slight movement of her body. And right now her chest was rising and falling rapidly with her breathing.
"Do you think you could breathe a little less enthusiastically?" he whispered urgently. "It's very distracting."
"Well I'm sorry that my need for oxygen is so inconvenient," she shot back. Nevertheless, she did attempt to control her breathing.
This didn't solve his problems by any means. It wasn't just her touch but her smell also that he found intoxicating. The flowery scent of her shampoo blended with her vanilla perfume, making her almost irresistible.
"Wow," he breathed.
"What?" she asked, giving him a quizzical look.
"You smell lovely," he said, then blushed furiously. "I'd never noticed before."
He received a small smile in response, but mentally he was kicking himself. If he kept letting precious opportunities like this slip away then he would never be able to say the things he longed to.